Ian Miller Memorial Stalemate - U's v Mariners

[Habbinalan]

With both teams keen to continue their recent climb away from the relegation places, this one has score draw written all over it. Grimsby don't score much on the road and after a couple of clean sheets we're overdue a blooper so 1 - 1 in front of a decent crowd. I'm not aware of any special events or promotions, so 4,420 incl. 525 from Cleethorpes way.

Forde
Halliday, Taylor, Taft, Carroll
O'Neil, Deegan, Maris
Lambe, Ibehre, Brown

Subs: Mitov, John, Amoo, Azeez, Dunk, Lewis, Osadebe

It'll be nice to finally have some options from the bench. Our best team might have Mitov, John and Dunk in ahead of Forde, Taft and Lambe. I'll be pleased if Amoo has got over his twinge but, if he's fit, would rather see 20 minutes from him at the end than risking a start.

 

[Posh Harry]

My first game of the season tomorrow. Thanks for the offer of the 1-1. After how shit we were at your place last season I would take that in a heartbeat.

 

[Son of Cod]

Not a fan of these whacky thread titles but absolutely loved Ian Miller, so this one is fine. Letting go of him was a right clanger at the time, even though we did have decent options.

Already wrote about this match in the Relegation thread, but looking forward to it. Can't be worse than last season. Think this will be two evenly matched (ie. not great) but slowly improving sides.

Might be the beer I've just sunk on the train talking but I'm going for a bullish prediction of Cambridge 0-2 Town.

 

[GTFCfish]

Not sure why but I think we’re gonna win this.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

More good tippy tapping around the edge of the box with the end product of a team of 5 year olds. Bollocks.

 

[GTFCfish]

Not sure why but I think we’re gonna win this.

Although I could be wrong.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

Dogshit result. Another decent performance ruined by a weak as piss attack. Really needed to not lose this one to avoid getting dragged into another losing run as I can't see us beating Mansfield. At least a few cup games follow to try and mix things up a bit.

This Hooper love in simply has to stop. The idea that he offers something is an absolute myth. It's another game where I also think Thomas is overrated by our fans. He's not effective enough as a lone striker. We sadly don't have anyone who can play on their own, but we play better as a 3 in midfield. Might be time to try 352 again now we have some fullbacks fit.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Poor game, 0-0 would have been fair with neither team really looking like threatening the goal despite getting in some decent wide positions, one good save by each keeper from what I recall. Amoo again making the difference from the bench, but no-one played particularly badly for us except for Maris, sad to see him such a shadow of his former self.

Been a massive 2 weeks for us, phenomenal points return and the defence appears to have sorted itself out. Hopefully we can get through next week before another winnable game at an out of sorts Oldham.

 

[Laker]

I didn’t realise we had our own thread this week. Yeah was a terrible game which fortunately we came out on the right side of but frankly both sides would have been lucky to score nil.

Just delighted to have seven points on second from bottom frankly.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

I didn't think the game was that bad, or maybe that's just me being used to poor quality football. I thought Cambridge moved the ball well and both teams tried to pass it about. We defended well from some very good deliveries into our box. We just lack any sort of plan going forward. We break relatively well and our pass and move around the box has been pretty good all season but our finishing is so tame it's a joke. I think both teams showed that there's something there and with a bit of work and a few additions, we'll both be fine.

 

[Habbinalan]

The first half was the anticipated stalemate and was dire. Second half was better. Plenty of mistakes and missed passes but David Amoo must be one of the best wingers in L2 - for the 20-30 minutes he can deliver at the end of a match and provided someone is capable of getting on the end of the multiple crosses he always manages to deliver.

Paul Lewis showed how he might offer some aerial threat in and from midfield. Clean sheet. Momentum maintained.

Grimsby probably offered less than Macclesfield (or ourselves) in terms of goal threat. There's a few L2 teams needing a striker or two. I hope we're doing some early business.

 

[Son of Cod]

Dogshit result. Another decent performance ruined by a weak as piss attack. Really needed to not lose this one to avoid getting dragged into another losing run as I can't see us beating Mansfield. At least a few cup games follow to try and mix things up a bit.

This Hooper love in simply has to stop. The idea that he offers something is an absolute myth. It's another game where I also think Thomas is overrated by our fans. He's not effective enough as a lone striker. We sadly don't have anyone who can play on their own, but we play better as a 3 in midfield. Might be time to try 352 again now we have some fullbacks fit.

Fullbacks can't cross for shit though. RHJ's crossing was absolutely feeble. I don't think he put one in without it bobbling along the floor. Every time he got into a good position yesterday he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. I'm not even sure if we have a natural LB that can get forward either. Fox and Dixon aren't that type of player and from what I have seen of Hendrie, he isn't either. Clifton could potentially play there, I guess.

I didn't think the match was as bad as some are saying in here. Was an all too familiar story for us, with it being nice and patient in terms of build up but without really penetrating. We carved out more chances than Cambridge and felt if either team shaded it it was us. They did have the best two chances though, in all fairness. The goal and then the one that produced a great McKeown save.

Haven't seen the goal again yet, but was there a foul in the build up? Looked like someone (Hendrie?) got shoved over on the edge of the box, but there was no real appeal from our lot so I guess not?

 

[Posh Harry]

Fullbacks can't cross for shit though. RHJ's crossing was absolutely feeble. I don't think he put one in without it bobbling along the floor. Every time he got into a good position yesterday he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. I'm not even sure if we have a natural LB that can get forward either. Fox and Dixon aren't that type of player and from what I have seen of Hendrie, he isn't either. Clifton could potentially play there, I guess.

I didn't think the match was as bad as some are saying in here. Was an all too familiar story for us, with it being nice and patient in terms of build up but without really penetrating. We carved out more chances than Cambridge and felt if either team shaded it it was us. They did have the best two chances though, in all fairness. The goal and then the one that produced a great McKeown save.

Haven't seen the goal again yet, but was there a foul in the build up? Looked like someone (Hendrie?) got shoved over on the edge of the box, but there was no real appeal from our lot so I guess not?

Looked like a foul from the away end but the highlights show Hooper was piss weak and fell over too easily

 

[Posh Harry]

Agree

Fullbacks can't cross for shit though. RHJ's crossing was absolutely feeble. I don't think he put one in without it bobbling along the floor. Every time he got into a good position yesterday he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. I'm not even sure if we have a natural LB that can get forward either. Fox and Dixon aren't that type of player and from what I have seen of Hendrie, he isn't either. Clifton could potentially play there, I guess.

I didn't think the match was as bad as some are saying in here. Was an all too familiar story for us, with it being nice and patient in terms of build up but without really penetrating. We carved out more chances than Cambridge and felt if either team shaded it it was us. They did have the best two chances though, in all fairness. The goal and then the one that produced a great McKeown save.

Haven't seen the goal again yet, but was there a foul in the build up? Looked like someone (Hendrie?) got shoved over on the edge of the box, but there was no real appeal from our lot so I guess not?

Agree with you SoC. it was a decent game imo. First half poor with both teams being tentative but Cambridge better. Second half when Hessenthaler came on we became much better and controlled the midfield and pressed forward and put them under a lot of pressure with poor decision making and poor final balls being the main problem.

Don’t think I saw a game yesterday where either side will be relegated, but neither will disturb the top half of the league either imo.

UTFM

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

Fullbacks can't cross for shit though. RHJ's crossing was absolutely feeble. I don't think he put one in without it bobbling along the floor. Every time he got into a good position yesterday he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. I'm not even sure if we have a natural LB that can get forward either. Fox and Dixon aren't that type of player and from what I have seen of Hendrie, he isn't either. Clifton could potentially play there, I guess.

Yeah our crossing is just another case of our poor end product. We could always play with wingers there ie Pringle as long as we play the likes of Welsh / Rose to cover defensively. I think Hendrie could play the wing back role though, he showed against Carlisle he's capable of getting forward and even won us the game doing so. Either way I don't think we'll see an attempt at it until January at least, even with RHJ back he's our only real RB and is still clearly off full fitness.

I think our current system is okay but we just don't have anybody who can play the lone striker role effectively. It might just be a case of us still needing to gel as a lot of the time it seems like we're not on the same page going forward. Thomas will / won't make certain movements and the pass will go somewhere completely different. I'm not sure he's as back to goal as some seem to think. Again whether that's just playstyle or a gelling issue remains to be seen. The absolute main thing that's let us down is pisspoor attempts at goal which a change in system won't fix. That's a confidence thing.

 

[pontoonlew]

Looked like a foul from the away end but the highlights show Hooper was piss weak and fell over too easily

Shock.

 

[Son of Cod]

Yeah our crossing is just another case of our poor end product. We could always play with wingers there ie Pringle as long as we play the likes of Welsh / Rose to cover defensively. I think Hendrie could play the wing back role though, he showed against Carlisle he's capable of getting forward and even won us the game doing so. Either way I don't think we'll see an attempt at it until January at least, even with RHJ back he's our only real RB and is still clearly off full fitness.

I think our current system is okay but we just don't have anybody who can play the lone striker role effectively. It might just be a case of us still needing to gel as a lot of the time it seems like we're not on the same page going forward. Thomas will / won't make certain movements and the pass will go somewhere completely different. I'm not sure he's as back to goal as some seem to think. Again whether that's just playstyle or a gelling issue remains to be seen. The absolute main thing that's let us down is pisspoor attempts at goal which a change in system won't fix. That's a confidence thing.

Fair enough with regards to Hendrie, think I've only seen him live twice and wasn't at Carlisle or watching on iFollow.

Agree with all that, though. Despite disappointing results and major flaws in our play, I do like what Jolley is going for. He has us way more well drilled at the back than early on in the season and the ball being on the deck is much better than the tripe we had to watch last season. I get the feeling that if this team clicks then they can be really exciting.

Also echo your thoughts on Thomas. The problem there is that he is the only option for that lone striker system. Which seems absurd when we could field two completely different and decent three man CM combos. The squad as a whole is very unbalanced, but Jolley did say he needed three windows to get it where he wanted.

We need to give him time, like we did with PH. The difference there was that he was building his squads and implementing his style on squads that were at the top of an easier divison and winning games on a consistent basis. It's easy to forget that Jolley is a very young manager, both in age and experience. He is going to show a fair amount of tactical naivety before we get this right. I just hope we don't lose sight of the bigger picture as a set of fans and end up on his and our players' (especially the younger ones) backs.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Just seen some fan highlights and think we had a strong shout for a penalty. Challenge on RHJ a few minutes before he got a yellow for the dive, which was the correct decision.

Shouldn’t distract from practically creating zilch otherwise.

 

[Laker]

Just seen some fan highlights and think we had a strong shout for a penalty. Challenge on RHJ a few minutes before he got a yellow for the dive, which was the correct decision.

Shouldn’t distract from practically creating zilch otherwise.

I was some 80 yards away so hard to tell and I haven’t seen it since. But there were a few sharp intakes of breath around me when the challenge happened and the referee didn’t give a penalty.

 

[Vanni]

I got home around 3.30pm, and by the time I got the stream to work I had missed the first 36 or so mins. To my amazement, I saw the game was still goalless We desperately need to find a decent striker from somewhere as we can't always rely on the midfield players to come up with the goals. And no, a fully fit jabo is not the answer.

As for Grimsby, I thought only Embleton carried any sort of a goal threat, but he needs to work on his finishing. The back line/defensive mids were decent as expected but I think nowadays far too many sides are sitting too deep when playing away. The idea of keeping it tight at the back and then hoping to nick a goal to win the match doesn't really appeal to me. Sure, it may work once or twice, but there are 23 away matches to play in a football season so you can see where I'm coming from.

I'm sure the two sides will stay up this year.

Just seen some fan highlights and think we had a strong shout for a penalty. Challenge on RHJ a few minutes before he got a yellow for the dive, which was the correct decision.

Shouldn’t distract from practically creating zilch otherwise.

That footage on Youtube? if so, there are two penalty shouts - one involving Lambe and the other Carroll - and both are clearly not penalties.

 

[Son of Cod]

I got home around 3.30pm, and by the time I got the stream to work I had missed the first 36 or so mins. To my amazement, I saw the game was still goalless We desperately need to find a decent striker from somewhere as we can't always rely on the midfield players to come up with the goals. And no, a fully fit jabo is not the answer.

As for Grimsby, I thought only Embleton carried any sort of a goal threat, but he needs to work on his finishing. The back line/defensive mids were decent as expected but I think nowadays far too many sides are sitting too deep when playing away. The idea of keeping it tight at the back and then hoping to nick a goal to win the match doesn't really appeal to me. Sure, it may work once or twice, but there are 23 away matches to play in a football season so you can see where I'm coming from.

I'm sure the two sides will stay up this year.

23 games? Oh sweet innocent Vanni. If only this was just our away system!